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A study of 10 U.S. states has found 47 – 77 percent of employed workers who received medical advice or treatment for on-the-job injuries had their treatment paid for by workers' compensation insurance. In the United States, most workers employed for wages should have medical care for their work injuries paid for by workers compensation insurance. In this study, the workers were asked if they had been injured during the course of their work and, if so, who paid for treatment. This study highlights the need for an additional understanding of why payment for work-injuries does not occur through workers' compensation insurance. This study also breaks new ground in developing comparable state-level work injury estimates from information reported directly by workers.

2. Update: Influenza Activity — United States and Worldwide, 2009–10 Season

CDC Division of News and Electronic MediaPhone: (404) 639-3286

This report summarizes influenza activity in the United States and worldwide during the 2009–10 influenza season. The majority of influenza activity of the 2009-10 influenza season has been due to Influenza A (2009 H1N1), the strain which caused the first influenza pandemic in 40 years. In the United States, activity was highest during the week ending October 24, 2009 and has since declined. The proportion of visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) to health-care providers have been among the highest since ILI surveillance began. Rates of influenza-related hospitalizations and deaths among those younger than 65 years old during this season have been substantially higher than in recent influenza seasons.

Local health departments typically provide services based on jurisdictional borders; this policy presented a challenge to 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaigns. The Skokie Health Department (SHD), at the request of the state health director in Illinois, rapidly modified existing mass vaccination plans to accommodate persons in vaccine priority groups from a wide geographic area. Skokie has a population of 67,000. SHD, with the assistance of 1,075 volunteers, either administered or distributed to medical providers 40,850 H1N1 vaccine doses during a 9-week period, including 8,904 doses administered at 52 Skokie schools and day-care facilities, and 12,876 doses at mass vaccination clinics visited by residents of 193 of the 1,313 Illinois municipalities. Overall, 54 percent of vaccine recipients at SHD clinics were not residents of Skokie. During pandemics, vaccine shortages are likely to occur; where appropriate and permissible, mass vaccination clinics that cross public health jurisdictional borders can improve access to vaccine.